Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus

Chester Brown has a long history of adapting bible stories and frequenting prostitutes. In this volume he combines his two passions, using bible stories to help rationalize his sexual activity. He's not the first guy to justify his actions through bible studies, but he may be the first to get a moderately entertaining graphic novel out of the effort. I may not buy it all, but his interpretations are certainly thought provoking.

A quick, thoughtful, and interesting comic series on prostitution and religious obedience in the bible. Chester Brown does a fantastic job bringing to life the stories of Ruth, Mary, and other famous prostitutes mentioned in the Bible in a comic format that is engaging and well drawn. There is a lengthy afterward and notes section where he talks about his appreciation of prostitutes, the stigma behind them, and the inspiration for the creation of the comic. A fun read, even for those who aren't super practicing Christians. It may offend some, but hey, it's in the Bible.

Chester Brown gets me every time. I'm pretty well hooked after two panels and his newest book, a treatise on prostitution and obedience in the Bible is no exception. His sparse artistic style and script, grounded in rich research, captures so much emotional expression and contradictory elements that really brings to life how gd weird the Bible can be; and how much can be learned from scripture when the reader goes against the grain of popular biblical teaching.

A collection of graphical stories from the Bible, with the common thread that they show more acceptance of prostitution and female sexual agency than is the modern Christian norm. There are stories of Ruth, Rahab, Bathsheba, as well as Job and Cain and Abel. Accompanying notes explore suggestions by Biblical scholars that early Christians and Jesus himself had a much more positive view of prostitutes and prostitution than later New Testament writers such as Paul.

You'll never look at "feet" in the Bible the same way ever again.

This was a sometimes interesting interpretation of the Bible as a "secret history," where references to an acceptance of prostitution in the Ancient World and to the possible illegitimate ancestry of Jesus are portrayed through a series of Biblical stories and parables drawn as a graphic novel. The Afterword, Notes, Acknowledgements and Bibliography take up about 1/3rd of the book (i.e. it requires 33% of the book to explain what the other 66% is about).

Chester Brown's graphic stories are not necessarily exactly the Biblical versions that you may have read previously. They have been tweaked with interpretations and variations as drawn from Biblical Apocrypha with a show more particular favourite being "The Gospel of the Nazarene" which some scholars consider a pre-censored version of "The Gospel of Matthew."

Brown credits esp. Jane Schaberg's "The Illegitimacy of Jesus: A Feminist Theological Interpretation of the Infancy Narratives", Yaram Hazony's "The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture: An Introduction" and John Dominic Crossan's "The Power of Parable: How Fiction by Jesus Became Fiction about Jesus" as influences on his thinking. show less

Got to meet Chester and get a signed copy of this book at a library conference.

This is a great little story that builds on the unusual genealogy of Jesus. Brown's interpretation of this is a bit of a stretch but entertaining and worth a read to anyone who likes controversial material or biblical criticism.

For those who are not privy to the world of biblical criticism: 'feet' can sometimes be a euphemism for 'penis'.

Happy reading.

Mind. Blown. Interesting take on prostitution and it's role in the Bible. The best part may be the prose bits. It's a completely different view of well-known, and very familiar to me, stories with a previously unrecognized potential thread. Would be interesting to read a feminist response to this. Someone write it!